Month: June 2010

Just when you were feeling good about how your comedy career was progressing, here's a reminder that you probably didn't record your second stand-up comedy CD before you turned 20. Bo Burnham — the teen who became a musical comedy star thanks to the YouTube and recorded his first Comedy Central special in August 2008, four days after he turned 18 — is recording his second CD tonight at Carolines on Broadway in NYC. I asked Burnham about it. Here's what he told me earlier today: "It's a lot of music, lot of stand-up – and isn't the biggest clusterfuck in the world." What more do you need to know? Oh, how about this: In July, Burnham heads on tour to perform at the Just For Laughs festivals in Toronto and Montreal, then across the pond for the Carlsberg festival in Dublin, and the month of August at Edinburgh...

Sam Tripoli's "Naughty Show" at the Hollywood Improv got a little down and dirty last week when "The Amazing Racist" (aka comedian Ari Shaffir) dishonored porn star and comedy fan Dana DeArmond in some fashion that is not captured on tape. What was captured was what happened next: 1980s WWF star heel "Rowdy" Roddy Piper emerged to defend DeArmond's honor, called out Shaffir, and then, inevitably, they rassled. Spoiler alert? Piper won. TMZ took the footage and ran with it last night. Shaffir, who infamously was at the center of a different feud in front of a live comedy club audience (See: Rogan v. Mencia), took a different level of pride about this more recent encounter. See @arishaffir: ...

Louis CK told me last week that he decided it was more than OK to use the stand-up he had been delivering to audiences over the past year and incorporate it into his new FX comedy, Louie. He hadn't filmed it yet for a DVD, so he said: "Then what, what am I saving this for? Do I want a special more than I want a series? To take primo, weapons-grade material, and spread it over the course of a series, so I decided, then I started taking things in that hour…" If you've seen him live in the past year, then you've heard Louis CK joke about volunteering at the NYC public school his daughters attend, and his, well, hilarious way of looking at dating and puppies, and how it's not going to end well, no matter what. My friend Gabe over at Videogum decided to highlight and isolate this "primo, weapons-grade material" from last night's premiere of Louie so you can enjoy it. So. Enjoy...

I have to admit that the heat wave of the past week slowed my internal processing unit, and that's not a euphemism, so it's only now that I can live comfortably once again today that I truly could appreciate this new parody video of the New York Times wedding "Vows" videos — just thinking that such a thing exists in reality as something that couples would believe that anyone else would want to see, well — and the devastating line readings by Ben Kronberg as "Ted," who's getting married to the naive "Gracie" (Jena Friedman). Yikes! Roll...

In its announcement today, Seattle's Labor Day weekend Bumbershoot festival boasted that it has offered comedy alongside its music stages for many of its 40 years — far longer than all of these newer, popular upstarts. Kids, right? Anyhow. What about the kids who'll be performing for you kids in Seattle this September? There will be lots of them, spread out over three separate comedy stages: One for the larger group events and showcase, one for up-and-coming and up-and-up stand-ups, and a third for the local Pacific Northwest flavors of comedy. Comedy Stage South: Patton Oswalt & Friends; Bring the Rock with Greg Behrendt; Comedy Loves Music! featuring Garfunkel and Oates, David O‚ÄôDoherty and Nick Thune; Comedy Podcast Live! featuring live episodes of Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo, WTF? with Marc Maron, and The Nerdist with Chris Hardwick Comedy Stage North: Donald Glover; Chris Hardwick; Jamie Kilstein; Nick Kroll; Joe Mande; Marc Maron; John Mulaney; Morgan Murphy; Kumail Nanjiani; Tig Notaro; Chelsea Peretti Comedy Stage West: Blood Squad; Duos; Bridgetown Comedy Festival Showcase; The Cracked Up; Famous Mysterious Actor Show; Komedy Kabaret; Laff Hole!; New Kids; Stop Podcasting Yourself Live Podcast; TBTL Live Podcast; Ubiquitous...